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Susan Travers

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What was her occupation
I haven't read Shirly's article, yet, but she went to France to study (French?). She was English by the way, from a well to do family. When the war broke out she joined the French ambulance service, which in those days was a service in it's own right. Nowadays it transports patiences from their homes to hospitals and clinics. It is the Fire brigade (+SAMU and SMUR) who are the ambulance.
OK, back on track, While Gen, later Marechal de France Konig was in Paris, he needed a driver, so he picked Susan (who went on to become his lover :eek:). He was in charge of the legion (13 DBLE) and the Free French who were to slow down the Axis (Rommel and some Italians) while the British (8th army?) under Montgomery's command made a tactical withdrawal from Lybie. It was early days; in the 1940.
This is all from memory, so if anyone wants to check on the facts, be my guest.

I remember some famous general, I forget his name, who said that "in the history of desert warfare he had never come across such well positioned and sustained defenses' or words to that effect.
Back to Sue, While they were holding off the Italians, Marie-Pierre (General Konig to you lot), was planning his own withdrawal. The Italians sent an envoie under a flag of truce, white, asking to speak with the General in order to negotiate their surrender. The sentinel who spoke fluent Italian but poor French, thought no way is he going to wake up the General in the middle of the night:oops:, so he woke up his Lieutenant instead.:rolleyes: He managed to get the words negotiate and surrender over.
The Lt, taking the same attitude as the sentinelle basically told to the Italians to bugger off and that they would consider their surrender in the morning. The key word being their. On the way back to their lines they hit a mine.
A couple of nights later Marie-Pierre was given the order to bug out which they did under the cover of darkness in pitch black, lights out mode, with Sue at the wheel.

I forget what her job was in Indochine, but it was obviously nothing remarkable otherwise I'd have remembered it. She eventually married another Adj/chef.
 
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I haven't read Shirly's article, yet, but she went to France to study (French?). She was English by the way, from a well to do family. When the war broke out she joined the French ambulance service, which in those days was a service in it's own right. Nowadays it transports patiences from their homes to hospitals and clinics. It is the Fire brigade (+SAMU and SMUR) who are the ambulance.
OK, back on track, While Gen, later Marechal de France Konig was in Paris, he needed a driver, so he picked Susan (who went on to become his lover :eek:). He was in charge of the legion (13 DBLE) and the Free French who were to slow down the Axis (Rommel and some Italians) while the British (8th army?) under Montgomery's command made a tactical withdrawal from Lybie. It was early days; in the 1940.
This is all from memory, so if anyone wants to check on the facts, be my guest.

I remember some famous general, I forget his name, who said that "in the history of desert warfare he had never come across such well positioned and sustained defenses' or words to that effect.
Back to Sue, While they were holding off the Italians, Marie-Pierre (General Konig to you lot), was planning his own withdrawal. The Italians sent an envoie under a flag of truce, white, asking to speak with the General in order to negotiate their surrender. The sentinel who spoke fluent Italian but poor French, thought no way is he going to wake up the General in the middle of the night:oops:, so he woke up his Lieutenant instead.:rolleyes: He managed to get the words negotiate and surrender over.
The Lt, taking the same attitude as the sentinelle basically told to the Italians to bugger off and that they would consider their surrender in the morning. The key word being their. On the way back to their lines they hit a mine.
A couple of nights later Marie-Pierre was given the order to bug out which they did under the cover of darkness in pitch black, lights out mode, with Sue at the wheel.

I forget what her job was in Indochine, but it was obviously nothing remarkable otherwise I'd have remembered it. She eventually married another Adj/chef.
amazing how as a woman she had more courage as some men ! she went to the Foreign legion. Did she get a Kepi Blanc ?
 

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I haven't read Shirly's article, yet, but she went to France to study (French?). She was English by the way, from a well to do family. When the war broke out she joined the French ambulance service, which in those days was a service in it's own right. Nowadays it transports patiences from their homes to hospitals and clinics. It is the Fire brigade (+SAMU and SMUR) who are the ambulance.
OK, back on track, While Gen, later Marechal de France Konig was in Paris, he needed a driver, so he picked Susan (who went on to become his lover :eek:). He was in charge of the legion (13 DBLE) and the Free French who were to slow down the Axis (Rommel and some Italians) while the British (8th army?) under Montgomery's command made a tactical withdrawal from Lybie. It was early days; in the 1940.
This is all from memory, so if anyone wants to check on the facts, be my guest.

I remember some famous general, I forget his name, who said that "in the history of desert warfare he had never come across such well positioned and sustained defenses' or words to that effect.
Back to Sue, While they were holding off the Italians, Marie-Pierre (General Konig to you lot), was planning his own withdrawal. The Italians sent an envoie under a flag of truce, white, asking to speak with the General in order to negotiate their surrender. The sentinel who spoke fluent Italian but poor French, thought no way is he going to wake up the General in the middle of the night:oops:, so he woke up his Lieutenant instead.:rolleyes: He managed to get the words negotiate and surrender over.
The Lt, taking the same attitude as the sentinelle basically told to the Italians to bugger off and that they would consider their surrender in the morning. The key word being their. On the way back to their lines they hit a mine.
A couple of nights later Marie-Pierre was given the order to bug out which they did under the cover of darkness in pitch black, lights out mode, with Sue at the wheel.

I forget what her job was in Indochine, but it was obviously nothing remarkable otherwise I'd have remembered it. She eventually married another Adj/chef.
I saw the lover part, go figure, Rank has its' privlidge
 

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amazing how as a woman she had more courage as some men ! she went to the Foreign legion. Did she get a Kepi Blanc ?
No. She was made an NCO directly, which can happen, for men who are already in the French army. I know of two, one was a Sgt, who was an engineer, he was in 6ème (now 1st) REG. He was given the matricule of a deserter. The other was an Adj/Chef who was in charge of the cross country team in 1 RE (Aubagne). He was nicknamed Daguet, which was the French Ops name for Desert Storm. He obviously took part in it with the French regulars, but he had this nothing better to do cropped.png WTF, most annoying habit of binging any and every little phrase around to the time when he was in the Golf war.
 
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No. She was made an NCO directly, which can happen, for men who are already in the French army. I know of two, one was a Sgt, who was an engineer, he was in 6ème (now 1st) REG. He was given the matricule of a deserter. The other was an Adj/Chef who was in charge of the cross country team in 1 RE (Aubagne). He was nicknamed Daguet, which was the French Ops name for Desert Storm. He obviously took part in it with the French regulars, but he had this View attachment 6951 WTF, most annoying habit of binging any and every little phrase around to the time when he was in the Golf war.
and the true heroes are humble and do not talk about it. How did the regulars you met feel about the Legion? your soldiering skills etc.
 

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and the true heroes are humble and do not talk about it. How did the regulars you met feel about the Legion? your soldiering skills etc.
To be quite honest, most of the French army is in awe of the legion. When we would work along side of them, which we did, they would step aside to let the legionnaires pass, whether it be in the foyer's queue or the cookhouses'e queue. The discipline installed in the legionnaire's would mean that instead of just going to the front, they would wait their turn.
I haven't got time now* but if you remind I'll tell you a tale of when we turned up in CAR, after the REP had been banned for years, a tale of violence ( a Cpl KO-ing a legionnaire with a stool in front of the regulars and one of them eating the mascot's (a monkey's) brain.

* I'm going to finish off my video titled "A legionnaire's trip down memory lane : CECAP."
CECAP as some of you know is where the 13 had it's commando course in Djibouti. It is now taken over by the French regulars who train up the US before they are deployed to Afghanistan. Well I worked there for a year, so after the first video, I will recount what it was like in my days.
The Piste, hasn't changed that much, but they have added some obstacles to train on before going to the piste,
 
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To be quite honest, most of the French army is in awe of the legion.
aside from maybe harsher discipline do you think the Legion is better at overall soldiering? I am asking because there was some posts on here about some not being able to speak proper french. How can that work properly in battle situations?
I have read comments like this below. I think it sound disrespectful but is there any truth to it?

could the bad comments be from people who never got accepted ? could it as one comment said be down to bad french planning and not a language barrier problem?
 

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I have just read that guy's comments, what to say? He is convinced that the French needed US military advisers in Vietnam. There is no way that I'm going to start a mass argument about that:eek:.
It was guy's opinion, who cares.
There are those who never got in the legion and those who have tried and failed. There is one person on Quora, I have dubbed him the Kosovo liberator. This guy is the expert on the legion. I have been banned from commentating on his posts, so I don't bother with the site any longer.
 
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I have just read that guy's comments, what to say? He is convinced that the French needed US military advisers in Vietnam. There is no way that I'm going to start a mass argument about that:eek:.
It was guy's opinion, who cares.
There are those who never got in the legion and those who have tried and failed. There is one person on Quora, I have dubbed him the Kosovo liberator. This guy is the expert on the legion. I have been banned from commentating on his posts, so I don't bother with the site any longer.
i was just curious. Are the Legion classed as special forces in France?
shirly xx
 

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No. Although the GCP, the para commandos, are the closest, followed by the DINOPS. I suppose that it depends on the which media is covering the legion's exploits (I have chosen that last word with great care).
 
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What? He will help us to get back Kosovo? :)
No, he's a knobber who likes to pretend that he was part of the Kosovo (foreigners) who liberated the country. He has gotten first hand accounts of the brutality suffered by the legionnaires at the hands of NCOs, having worked closely beside them.

I know only too well his type.
 
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